I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With - Chapter 004

WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

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◈ I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 004

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A Basic Blacksmith's Guide to Crafting Gear

* * *

I hadn't slept at all, spending the whole night poring over the wiki.

"'The path of magic begins with opening the Lower Dantian... and by going on to open the Middle and Upper Dantian as well, one can become a high-level mage... ugh, fuck.'"

I raked a hand through my hair, mussing it up.

I'd started studying magic as a side project, but I still hadn't gotten the hang of it at all.

Half-asleep, I shoveled down breakfast while I mulled it over.

The other kids had already finished eating. I'd overslept, so I ended up eating late.

If it were physical work, fine, but racking my brain like this was pure agony....

Using my head was technically my specialty, though.

From what I'd figured out, this world was simple.

A fantasy setting.

With a Tower splashed on top.

Whether it was a romance fantasy, I couldn't say.

Given that I was currently in an orphanage that reeked of cow dung, it felt pretty far removed from romance.

Then again, that was just where I happened to be. Once I got outside, who knew.

The core of it was this.

Once you came of age, those who qualified were given a Tower invitation.

And whoever received it chose whether or not to climb the Tower.

Strong or weak, climbing the Tower was the goal of life in this world.

"...I really don't want to climb a tower."

Just looking at it, it seemed dangerous.

[It's not really that simple, actually?]

[The Tower's the framework propping up this whole world's economy, power structure, and class system.]

Well, that was just how the overall structure worked, was all.

It wasn't like anyone was threatening me at knifepoint to climb it.

Unless I turned out to have some huge talent for magic, maybe.

In that sense, the wiki entry on Dolores was much the same.

There was so much written in the wiki that I hadn't managed to read all of it.

To sum it up briefly.

'Elysia von Dolores.'

She was the Duchess of House Dolores.

and had once been one of the Tower's top climbers.

Supposedly, she'd climbed the Tower alongside six sworn sisters....

But one day, without any warning, she'd stopped climbing.

After that, Dolores's whereabouts became a matter of seclusion.

Now, apparently, she ran an orphanage while raising a disciple.

[Stopping the climb is basically the same as retiring, apparently.]

"Is that so?"

Since I hadn't lived here, I didn't really get what it meant to stop climbing.

Well, guess she just wanted to raise a disciple. The kid was pretty cute-looking, anyway.

"But 'Ruler of the 5th Floor'? What's that about?"

Right after the name Elysia von Dolores was an epithet: Ruler of the 5th Floor.

[The Tower's split into climbing zones and residential zones. Like a residential district and a commercial district.]

[Whoever controls the perks and profits of a residential zone is the Ruler. For reference, the 5th floor's local specialty is....]

"Uh, okay, got it, that's enough for now."

Ruler, huh. Exactly what it sounds like. Sounded like someone with a grip on the rights and profits.

Too much information got exhausting too, in its own way.

I got the gist, roughly.

[Hmph.]

Either way, there was only one thing that mattered right now.

Dolores had given me a mission.

I had to show her something that would surprise her within a week.

What on earth would it take to surprise that woman?

I slowly worked through it with what information I had.

And the first thing that came to mind was, of course, that.

[Gorgonyu's White Gloves][★★★★★]

[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility Rating][1.1/100] - [Extremely Toxic]

[The wearer's innate Yin energy and the gear's own Yin energy interlock and amplify each other.]

[The cause behind the sealing of 7 of the 9 meridians in the Nine Yin Meridian Affliction.]

Of all the information I had, that was the most baffling piece.

I remembered it because it had been the most immediately visible piece of information.

It was the window that had popped up when Dolores put on the white gloves.

Compatibility 1.1. Extremely Toxic. Nine Yin Meridian Affliction. Seven meridians closed.

It sounded like it was saying the white gloves just didn't suit Dolores....

But I couldn't be sure of the details.

"...Let's find out."

What that window actually meant.

I got up from my seat.

and headed straight for the magic class.

* * *

Thankfully, Dolores had guaranteed me a certain amount of freedom.

so I was able to go visit the magic class.

Not that I was actually going to hang out. There was something I needed to look into.

"Oh, Lionel! What brings you here!"

The person I'd come to see was the instructor.

"Ah, it's nothing much, I just had a few questions."

"Have you decided to sit in on a magic class lesson after all? Good thinking."

The instructor welcomed me with obvious delight.

I shook my head at that and pointed at the table behind him.

"That's not it... sir, could you maybe put on that glove for me?"

A glove sat neatly folded on the table.

It looked like the one he'd worn during the magic demonstration yesterday, with black embroidery scattered sparsely across the wrist.

"I knew it, there's a reason the Duchess picked you out. You've got a sharp eye."

The instructor, looking pleased, lifted the glove to show me and began putting it on.

"This glove can only be worn by someone with outstanding magical aptitude. It's not something just anyone can use, only those chosen by mana can wear it."

─────────────────

[Novice's Cotton Gloves][☆☆☆☆☆]

[Compatibility Rating][10/15] - [Compatible]

─────────────────

【To call this a mage's gear would be an insult to mages, and to call it merely gear wouldn't exactly please the gear either.】

─────────────────

[Gear suited to mages who've barely managed to rise above the level of an ordinary person.]

─────────────────

The moment he put the glove on, a window popped up in front of my eyes.

I let the instructor's explanation wash over me and focused on the information in front of me instead.

The white gloves Dolores had worn had five stars, every single one filled in with color.

And on top of that, the Compatibility Rating... its max value had been 100.

But right now, every star was empty.

The max was only 15.

"A whopping 1-star piece of gear, not something you can easily get around here...."

All the stars were empty, though....

"So doesn't that make this a 0-star, then...?"

"Hm? What was that?"

"Ah, no, nothing. It suits you well."

It genuinely did suit him well enough, which was a relief, but I couldn't shake a certain bitterness.

Since it apparently meant he'd only just barely risen above being an ordinary person.

"Thank you. That looks great."

The instructor, looking pleased, took the glove off and set it back on the table.

I watched his back and quietly gathered my thoughts.

So, sure, the grade of the gloves themselves was different.

But while Dolores's Compatibility Rating with her gear was low, the instructor's was high.

'Dolores: Extremely Toxic. The instructor: Compatible.'

Which meant that despite owning expensive gear, Dolores was, in effect, an incompatible user of it.

"Um, sir...."

I'd started to ask him something... and stopped.

Thinking about it, rather than asking this person...

[Hm?]

she'd know better anyway.

"Ah, thank you."

"Sure. Class is starting soon, so if you'd like to sit in and watch..."

"Ah, unfortunately I've got a bit of a headache."

I gave a quick bow and left the magic class.

I settled down under a tree's shade at one edge of the orphanage grounds.

and asked her a question.

The thing I was most curious about, first.

"What exactly does this Compatibility Rating measure?"

But.

[Even I don't get it.]

[There's no data on that at all.]

"...Huh?"

[But I did manage to find something that's probably a similar concept?]

[Going by the Inner Tower community, there's a concept called 'gear compatibility theory.']

[The problem is it's never been academically established, and even within the community it's more like rumor-tier? Urban-legend-tier? People just quietly whisper about it among themselves.]

"A rumor, huh."

[Mm-hm. There's a claim floating around that wearing gear you're compatible with sends your combat power through the roof, but....]

[Well, there doesn't seem to be a single actual case of anyone measuring or proving it by wearing the gear themselves?]

I sat there blankly for a moment.

In other words.

This Compatibility Rating that only I could see, apparently, was information that didn't exist anywhere in this world.

[But, hey, brother.]

[Can I say one more weird thing]

"...Go ahead."

I answered curtly.

If there's one terrifying thing about this little sister of mine.

it's that she's an AI capable of reasoning and judging on her own, and since she surpasses human capability, she can infer and point out things I miss.

Sometimes that's reassuring.

Sometimes it's downright creepy. Because she feels genuinely alive.

Out on the training grounds, magic class training happened to be in full swing.

When the instructor drew a line in the air, a glimmer flickered deep in his belly.

[Oh, oh, that's it. That's apparently the phenomenon of mana gathering in the Lower Dantian.]

[But you can actually see it, brother?]

"What about it?"

[How???]

[There's not a single report anywhere... of anyone being able to see a dantian's mana with the naked eye...?]

I looked out toward the training grounds.

The glimmer was still visible to me.

Light flickered in the other kids' bellies too, but it never gathered together.

The instructor, on the other hand, had light gathering in his belly, faint as it was.

That was the difference.

[They say even a goldfish has a knack for something, so maybe you, brother....]

Setting aside Yuna's chatter, a thought suddenly struck me.

It was something from the wiki I'd read that morning, too.

According to what some mysterious archmage had written in the wiki.

the Lower Dantian was the belly, the Middle Dantian the chest, and the Upper Dantian the head.

The instructor's was in his belly, obviously the Lower Dantian....

But Dolores had glimmered from her chest.

"Pull up Dolores's wiki page."

I checked her estimated stats.

[Dolores again.]

[Based on estimated stats, that woman, a top-tier Tower Ranker, is projected to have opened all the way up to the Upper Dantian.]

The Upper Dantian.

The Upper Dantian was the head. That was common knowledge in any setting.

But what I'd seen was her chest.

The part of her body that had glowed was, without question, her chest.

"...So does that mean Dolores only opened her Middle Dantian?"

[Seems like it]

[You can't leave an opened Upper Dantian sitting there and only use the Middle one. That's the theory, anyway.]

I scratched my head slowly.

So, to sum it up.

The world knew Dolores as a top-tier Ranker who'd opened all the way to the Upper Dantian.

But to my eyes, she'd only opened the Middle.

Her gear was high-grade, sure, but it was Extremely Toxic to her.

And even her Middle Dantian was blocked?

A little dizzying, honestly.

"...Then again, maybe I just can't see her Upper Dantian?"

Maybe my skill just wasn't up to it.

Or my understanding was too shallow.

Let's not jump to conclusions about things I wasn't sure of.

I turned my gaze, and beyond the orphanage grounds, the prettily decorated annex came into view.

It was where Dolores was staying.

She hardly ever stayed here normally, apparently, but this time, unusually, she'd said she'd stay a whole week.

Gear.

Compatibility.

She probably had it all figured out on her own, but... it might have something to do with why she'd stopped climbing.

Either way, that wasn't my problem right now.

How to surprise Dolores, within a week.

Narrowing it down, there seemed to be about two options.

First, me, Kim Yujin... no, Lionel.

actually having a genuine, god-given talent for magic, and showing that talent off directly.

But realistically, this one was impossible, because.

[Casting a Glow Spell / Lowest Tier]

[Pray under moonlight, two hours every dawn, for two weeks.]

Every single magic-use method was like this.

Apparently this was the standard, proper method.

In other words, there was just no way, no way, no way this was happening within a week.

Of course, just in case, I did sneak in a few minutes of "prayer-kiting" here and there at dawn.

If I actually had talent, this should be enough to make magic just poof into existence, right?

Naturally, nothing had happened so far.

So then, the second option.

Using the Compatibility Rating.

This one seemed like the realistically better bet.

I pictured how it would go.

'Your Grace, your gear is garbage.'

"......."

Blurting that out with zero evidence behind it.

Would my head stay attached to my neck?

Mentioning the Nine Yin Meridian Affliction might at least lend it some credibility. The problem was how to prove it.

The one lucky thing was, when I pictured Dolores, that status window from before popped back up?

"...Too bright to see."

But the status window was translucent, and the sun was high overhead.

The glare made it hard to see properly.

"How am I even supposed to move this thing...."

Right as I was fumbling around in midair, it happened.

My fingertip brushed the status window.

- Flap.

"Huh?"

The status window flew wide open and split into two separate screens.

I recognized the layout the instant I saw it.

It was an RPG game's equipment screen.

You know, the kind you'd see in famous Korean RPGs. The layout was identical.

In the middle of the screen, Dolores stood posed elegantly.

There were several slots that looked like equipment slots, but every one of them was locked black.

The only slot with anything in it was the hand slot, holding what looked like a glove.

The glove slot.

I pressed it.

And then.

- Flap.

The window opened.

[Swap]

A swap button.

[No Gear Owned]

"......."

No gear.

Well, obviously. I was just some kid who'd shown up at the orphanage yesterday.

I felt my heart start pounding.

So this meant I couldn't do it because I had "no" gear.

Which meant, in theory, if gear could be checked here at all.

then bringing over a matching piece of gear and trying it on... would show me a Compatibility Rating, right?

And that would make it solid evidence I could put in front of Dolores.

No need to explain it in words at all. Just put it on, and it'd show up right there.

I looked out at the training grounds.

The instructor was still busy training.

This was my moment.

I slipped quickly into his office.

The glove was kept very carefully. Maybe he'd only worn it earlier because it happened to be the day Dolores was visiting.

I grabbed his glove at once.

and brought it up to the glove slot in Dolores's status window.

[Swap gear?]

"Obviously."

And the window that came up.

─────────────────

[Novice's Cotton Gloves][☆☆☆☆☆]

[Compatibility Rating][0.1/15] - [Remove Immediately]

─────────────────

[Unless you've lost your mind, there's no reason for a genius archmage to wear this. If you still insist on wearing it, we recommend visiting the nearest doctor.]

─────────────────

"...There it is."

Only then did I realize I'd been holding my breath.

I let it out slowly.

I could check gear compatibility.

Without even having to wear it.

"So then."

There was only one problem left now.

How to get gear that would actually suit Dolores.

As far as I could tell, finding gear suited to Dolores out in this backwater was about as likely as plucking a star from the sky.

Making it myself would be faster, honestly.

Was there any chance I could cheat my way through crafting gear too?